Featured Wines - February 2005

The first thing you notice about the 2003 Château Magneau Graves Blanc is its bright sunshiny color. The amplifying nose of this delightful wine is certainly the next and most unmistakable feature of the 2003 white Château Magneau. Grassy, herbal scents join with hints of pineapple and tropical fruits to add a flamboyant, exotic edge to the wine that is reminiscent of some of the best New World efforts with Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. On the pa...

The 2002 Murphy-Goode Wildcard remains true to the estate’s commitment to fashion fleshy hedonistic wines that offer ample pleasure from their inception. The 2002 Wildcard is richly colored and laden with charm. The aroma of fresh blackberry, mingled with spice and toasted barrel, is the first indication that the consumer’s enjoyment is this wine’s total reason for being. And the best is yet to come as each sip of the 2002 Wildcard reveals a vari...

A thoroughly charming and well-mannered Gruner Veltliner, the 2003 Rudi Pichler Gruner Veltliner Federspiel manages to combine all the raciness and exotic charm of Austria’s most distinctive vareital with good breeding and a sunny disposition. Indeed, there is much to like in Pichler’s dry, ripe rendition of what has suddenly become Europe’s most fashionable white grape. Subtle fruit, a hint of rose petal, dried lichée, oriental spice, supreme ba...

A medium to full-bodied red wine, the 2001 Guigal Gigondas exhibits as much charm as vigor. Built along the lines of one of Marcel Guigal’s now legendary Châteauneuf-du-Papes, this Gigondas possesses a rich ruby/purple robe and deep down scents of kirsch and crème de cassis, which follow through to the palate. In the mouth, a core of tightly wound black fruits lies wrapped within silky tannins and a restrained sophisticated cachet of cedar and sp...